


My Sweetest Downfall

by TundrainAfrica



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M, Modern Era, Post-Canon, Song Lyrics, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:55:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28399590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TundrainAfrica/pseuds/TundrainAfrica
Summary: "The history books forgot about us and the bible didn’t mention us. Not even once."A century after the war ended, one student gets a little too interested in the relationship between the commander and captain.
Relationships: Levi/Hange Zoë
Comments: 15
Kudos: 89
Collections: Tumblr Prompts and Oneshots (Tundrainafrica)





	My Sweetest Downfall

**Author's Note:**

> I just realized the song "Samson" by Regina Spektor fits their relationship so well and I ended up writing this.

_You are my sweetest downfall._

_I loved you first._

The memories were still connected.

It had been more than a century since the war ended but somehow people still saw the Eldians and the titans in their dreams. They saw it in the blood that splattered as the colossal titans flattened it. They saw it in the terrified faces as the titans approached the lands.

Even wide awake, they were never spared of the horrors. The Reiss family always made sure to remind the Eldians of the massacre that occurred that wiped away the whole world,through history classes and tours around the most important places in Paradis. Always ending with one final message. Never again.

Samantha found herself in one of those dreams during one of those tours one day. The tours were nothing new. They were an alternative to classroom learning, to make the history lessons a little more memorable.

“Today, we will be following the formation of the alliance. If you remember from our last class…”

 _They were supposed to take down the founding titan._ Everyone was silent. They all knew what happened already.

The founding titan finished its mission then disappeared. The curse was broken. The only country not left a wasteland by the disaster was Paradis.

_And its Paradis’ duty to rebuild the world._

The silence around her and that brief moment of respite was what gave Samantha some leeway to look around and observe her surroundings. She couldn’t help but think, the forest must have looked the same centuries ago. The trees were too big to have been any younger.

 _So did the soldiers see the same view I’m seeing now?_ Suddenly, as she reflected on that thought, a brief realization dawned on her. Those same soldiers heard, saw, felt and experienced things she had only ever read about. They suffered in more ways that she could even imagine and fathom.

She shuddered at that conclusion, so violently that she found herself sprawled painfully on the dirt trodden path of the forest, a small glade where the weeds were starting to grow. She had tripped on the weeds.

“Hey are you okay?”

Her knee was bleeding and dirty. Her clothes were stained brown. They weren’t going home anytime soon. Any other day, something like that should have ruined her day. As she stood up and brushed whatever dirt off of her chest, she was far from angry. Apathetic maybe? A good balance between annoyed and curious. Or maybe her mind was just elsewhere.

 _The memories of the Eldians were connected._ Samantha was seeing a memory of an Eldian who had lain in that same ground only a century ago.

_“Maybe we should just live here together. Right Levi?”_

* * *

Captain Levi and Commander Hange.

Along with most if not all the members of the alliance and the survey corps, those two were household names. She recognized Hange Zoe by her chestnut brown hair, those almond eyes and the eyepatch. She had seen their photos many times when she opened the textbook and willed herself to memorize every event from the establishment of the survey corps to the formation of the alliance to prepare for a long test the next day

Captain Levi and Commander Hange were inseparable. It was evident in every group photo. But it was only natural that that was the case. In classes they would describe Levi as Hange Zoe’s right hand man. They were the two oldest veterans in the survey corps and they had worked together for over a decade before the establishment of the alliance.

_Of course they would have trusted each other the most._

_Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth. I have to go, I have to go_

From the establishment of the survey corps to the formation of the alliance and the defeat that came after. She did not need to think hard to recall that Commander Hange did not make it until the end of the war. To buy the alliance time, she sacrificed herself and killed as many colossal titans as she could after quickly appointing the duty of commander to Armin.

* * *

_Your hair was long when we first met_

“Samson’s strength came from his hair...”

 _Samson and Delilah._ In Literature class, they were reading thousand year old romances. Samantha’s mind was still in the one hundred year love story that had made itself at home in her mind and it looked like they had no plans of leaving soon.

_Samson went back to bed_

_Not much hair left on his head_

_He ate a slice of Wonder Bread_

_And went right back to bed_

“Levi, you have to eat more. Who knows how long you’ve been lying there after the explosion.” Despite her insistence, all Hange got in return was some unintelligible grumbling.

“Come on, I don’t want you to di--.” The word got caught in her throat and Hange found herself looking away. _I’m just a little tired._ She thought to herself. _But do people cry when they're tired?_

“One slice.” Levi managed to say.

It ended up being less than a slice. Hange had enough experience with soldiers to know though that if she had fed him anymore, he probably wouldn’t have been able to keep it down.

_Beneath the stars came fallin' on our heads_

_But they're just old light, they're just old light_

_Samson came to my bed_

_Told me that my hair was red_

_Told me I was beautiful_

_And came into my bed_

Hange had always found the night sky beautiful. In fact, that was the only thing she could still lose herself in. Despite the dreariness of the night and the hopelessness of the situation, the night sky's beauty was unchanging, unwavering.

“Your hair… looks red.”

“What?” 

“Under the moonlight… it looks a little red.”

“You’re the first person who’s ever told me that.”

Maybe he was the only one who cared enough to notice.

_Oh, I cut his hair myself one night_

_A pair of dull scissors in the yellow light_

_And he told me that I'd done alright_

_And kissed me 'til the mornin' light, the mornin' light_

_And he kissed me 'til the mornin' light_

“Hold still. I need to change your bandages.”

It turned out, Levi was good at staying still. Hange was sure he was in a lot of pain. She saw it in the way he clenched his jaw and his fists. There shouldn’t have been any recoil as she cut through the bandages but even that slight movement had him recoiling. Hange wondered if with just the action of cutting bandages, she was applying unnecessary pressure on his wounds, and consequently, pain.

Levi was awake the whole time. Despite that, changing bandages was a smooth and peaceful process.

“You did a good job. I’ve changed bandages multiple times before for injuries like this. You’re the first one who didn’t even make a peep.”

“Maybe you just did a good job,” Levi said.

She didn’t notice at first but she had been slowly leaning closer to Levi since a while ago.

 _I just need to get a closer look at his wounds._ That had been her first excuse.

Something at the back of her mind was protesting that though. She didn’t need to look that closely to see the state of his injuries.

Then he kissed her. He only needed a slight movement from his end. That was how close Hange had been to him. Before Hange could comprehend what had happened, she willed herself to close her eyes and instead chose to enjoy the moment.

When she finally opened her eyes, it was morning and they had a war to fight.

* * *

“Didn’t you tell me before that history is an argument? This _is_ an argument. Why can’t I take this topic for my final research?” Samantha asked.

Her teacher sighed. “Your arguments should be evidence based. Do you have any evidence that Commander Hange and Captain Levi were in a relationship? Do you have letters? Documents?”

“I could look for mo--”

“Besides, they wouldn’t have had time anyway. They had a war to fight.” He continued, as if Sam hadn’t just tried to answer him a second ago. “How much content do you have anyway?”

 _My dreams._ She would have wanted to argue.

She had been a student long enough to know that he wanted hard facts. The reality was, there were no hard facts to go by. The week before, she had spent her time scouring the libraries for anything about the two of them. There were records on Hange Zoe and records on Levi Ackerman but no records that had connected them together as more than comrades in the military.

 _Why do you keep seeing love in everything?_ She scolded herself, a way to quell the disappointment inside her as she exited the faculty room. Maybe it was her immaturity that had spurred her to see the romance in that. She had spent weeks on that proposal and she had to start from nothing again.

Even when she tried to forget them, the dreams continued to haunt her for a while longer but she didn’t mind. She wanted to know what had happened to the commander and to the captain.

The last dream she ever remembered was watching the sky. As she looked closer, she saw Commander Hange flying, killing colossal after colossal as she soared. .

It was her first time seeing that scene but she recognized it almost instantly.

That was Commander Hange’s heroic sacrifice, the one they had recounted in textbooks.

In the distance she heard something else, something the textbooks had failed to mention.

One final farewell. _See you later, Hange._

_Oh, we couldn't bring the columns down_

_Yeah, we couldn't destroy a single one_

_And the history books forgot about us_

_And the Bible didn't mention us_

_And the Bible didn't mention us, not even once_

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is very much appreciated!


End file.
